Muley62

The way I understand it you can apply for the bonus point. Before the "bonus point" only option was available people would apply for a strip tag just to get a bonus point. There is no law against have two deer tags, you can only shoot one per year. So, IMO you could apply and draw a tag but you could not hunt if you did. Does that make sense?

Mr. Quimby I have just finished reading all of your post on this subject. You really should read the departments survey that launched this whole effort. You would be scratching your head. There was one question about what limits peoples ability to hunt, there was no "control qeustions". Also, 51% of the their respondants stated that overcrowding during hunting season was their biggest barrier to hunting. Yet we just stuffed a bunch more people in the field at the same time. Don't you agree that there is selective reasoning going on here? Also, you sure remember alot from your classes 52 years ago! I hope I can remember what I learned last week let alone the last decade or 5 decades ago. You stated that we promoted this survey to "like minded" hunters. We promoted this survey to the exact same people who took the original survey with the intent of clarifying their opinions. The number of people we sent this survey to is overwelming and far exceeds any scientific standard. The commission simply chose to ignore the results. You can point all the fingers you want to but it doesn't change the fact that commission is not obligated to listen. Chris

The department made their hunt recommendations in response to a survey they sent out to the people on thier e-mail list. The question that started this whole thing was about the barriers to hunting in AZ. 90% stated that getting drawn was the biggest barrier. Now, we live in a state that has a limited draw system so that is an obvious answer! I can only guess that the 10% who did not choose this response are small game hunters exclusively. The department sent 50,000 e-mails and recieved 6,665 responses. The ADA sent their survey to the exact same list plus 15,000 post cards and a massive online campaign. How can anyone in their right mind call the departments survey "scientific" and not the ADA's?

I am Chris Denham, I gave the presentation on behalf of the ADA. I thought I would throw in my .02. There is no such thing as a "scientific survey" that would be an experiment and not a survey. If we had randomly selected 2,000 names, the only people who would have responded would be the ones who cared, just like this survey did. We contact almost over 60,000 of the approx. 80,000 people who applied for deer. That standard goes way beyond random. Response to any survey is voluntary therefore you will always have a margin of error. When professional survey companies sample the general public about the next president they simply ask a person on the other end of the phone if they are registered to vote, will they likely vote and who would the likely vote for. They may talk to 2,000 out of 200,000 people in the US and claim accurucy of 2% and they are generally right on the mark. They have no idea if the person on the other end of the line is telling the truth or not. We could spend $100,000 to do a study of every single person who applied for deer and we would have gotten the same results. We know that, the commission knows that and the department knows that. The commission simply did not aggree with the public. That is their choice, they are obligated to take public input but are not obligated to vote in any way based on that input. I am disappointed that the majority of the commission chose not to treat the results with more respect but I am not surprised. I just wish we could have known this before we spent the time, energy and money to do it. I do think the commission would have been swayed if there had been more than 20 people at the meeting, but we will never know for sure.

Mike I hunted in Pike County as well, with Rodhouse Rut and Strut. I had a great time, it was a hunt I won through Muzzy so there were alot of big name folks there. We stayed up and laughed until midnight everynight and got up at 4:00 to go hunting. I did not kill a buck but saw two deer over 130", just couldn't get a shot for one reason or another. It was my first whitetail hunt and I garuntee you that I will be in a treestand somewhere next year. Chris Denham

I also had the chance to hunt Illinois this year. It was the first real Eastern whitetail hunt for me! I saw the snort weez used by a hunter on a video, while I was in camp so I had the oppurtunity to ask some real experts about it (Myles Keller and Roger Raglin). It is totally different than a the alarmed sound that a deer makes when the "blow", it is a territorial and dominance vocalization bucks will make during the pre rut and rut. I would love to try it here but I cannot honestly say that I have ever heard a coues deer make the sound.